Cormyr and the Dalelands

So, I'm thinking of finally - after years of procrastination - diving into the Star Wars EU books. Anyone here have recommendations of where to start, especially for someone who's interested in keeping things (somewhat/mostly) chronological?

Start with the Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command). Hands down the best that the EU has to offer, and also the books that basically began the entire expanded universe.

Shadows of the Empire is a fun little one-off that fits between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

From there, it really depends on tastes and interests within the universe. If you've an interest in the origins of the Sith, there are a number of books covering the early time periods. If you love the more ship-based and operative type angle, the X-Wing series is great for that itch. There is a series that revolves around Luke training the next generation of Jedi. If looking to see how things pan out in the far future sounds great, Legacy works nicely as a future "movie". There are some great collections of Dark Horse's comic series in Omnibus form that came out over the last half dozen years that should be mostly still be readily available - Marvel has been given the license now, so no telling when they will become rarity.

There is a lot. I totally agree with the desire to keep things roughly chronological (I'm the same way with a lot of fiction), but I really think the best experience is to cherry pick the titles that interest. There are gems in the EU, but as with all largely collaborative works, there are also stinkers.

Keep in mind that they announced earlier this year that everything EU up to this point is now officially "non canon". If that's important to you, only the movies and the two recent cartoon series (Clone Wars and now Rebels) are considered to have "happened". If you are just interested in stories and lore, there are still good things to explore.

Nah, I couldn't care less about the official canon. I just want to keep the stories I do read in something of a logical order, so I have a basic idea of what's already happened and what's currently happening, and don't end up jumping ahead and bumping into "wait what, when did that happen?".

The future Jedi route is probably the stuff I'll be mostly focused on, that was always my favorite part of the setting. Slightly less interested in the interstellar dogfighting, but I've heard really good things about the X-Wing series so it's on the list. Comics are probably out of the question, as I'm doing all my reading on Kindle ;P

Thanks!

I'd throw out that you should give some love to the Republic Commando Trilogy by Karen Traviss.  I absolutely loved the way she handled the Commandos, and by extension, the Mandalorians.

About when is it set?

Pre Original Trilogy, going from just after Order 66 and into the Empire.  At least as far as the Republic Commando set.  I didn't dig too deeply into the New Jedi Order stuff in novel format.

And hey!  Those comic books may be in digital format!  In fact, if you go to digital.darkhorse.com, you can see what they have available electronically.

It's less whether or not they're available electronically and more that I have one of the original Kindles and thus it isn't compatible with pretty much anything that isn't just text.

Granted, if I can just download them to my laptop in PDF, that solves that.... =)

I found the Darth Bane triology a good one. Bane initiated the Rule of Two for the Sith and the books go about how and why that happened and how it worked out initially. It is a must read if you like Sith/darksiders.

Chronologically it happened 2000 years before the movies.

New Jedi Order series personally

The Thrawn Saga is a must especially as it introduces Mara Jade who is an awesome character and I really hope they add her to the official stuff when Disney's movies come out

Different strokes. I found the NJO kind of middling. Didn't really care for the Yhuuzan Vong.